India-Israel Partnershiphttp://www.openthemagazine.com/taxonomy/term/25976/feed
enIndia-Israel Romance: Anxiety Over the Amityhttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/india-israel-partnership/india-israel-romance-anxiety-over-the-amity
<p>STROLLING ON ISRAEL’S Olga Beach in semi-casuals, soundless images of Narendra Modi and Binyamin Netanyahu gesticulating on TV screens six months ago were enough to capture the changed relationship between India and Israel. It gave the impression of an irreversible shift in New Delhi’s Middle East policy. As the Indian Prime Minister pithily put it, it was an ‘I4I’ moment, ‘India for Israel and Israel for India.’</p>
<p>With Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on a visit to India to talk more defence, trade and curiously even Hindi cinema, ample warmth has been on display. While some had feared that this bonhomie would hurt India’s ties with Islamic countries of the Middle East, signs of any such backlash have been minimal. One reason is that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which runs the West Bank (to whatever extent Israel lets it), has proven to be more pragmatic than reactive on the matter. Dr Abdullah Abdullah, who chairs the political committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council and was previously Fatah’s deputy commissioner for international affairs, told me last July that so long as New Delhi stands by a two-state solution for the region’s problem, Palestinians have no objection to India-Israel relations. On January 14th, he reiterated his view via an encrypted exchange: ‘The Indian PM’s visit to Israel or Netanyahu’s visit to India is a bilateral matter between them.’ Alluding to India’s vote against Trump’s move to declare Jerusalem Israel’s capital, he adds, ‘We value India sticking to its principled stand and supporting us at the international forum.’</p>
<p>On December 6th last year, US President Donald Trump had dropped a bombshell by declaring that the US will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Every country that has diplomatic missions in Israel has them in the former because of the latter’s disputed status. Israel has occupied East Jerusalem, home to holy sites for Christians, Muslims and Jews, in the Six Day War of 1967 and sovereignty over it is perhaps the most sensitive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although the question of the holy city is to be addressed in later stages of the on-and-off peace talks, Trump went ahead with his announcement, inviting a UN resolution calling upon the US to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Despite India’s BJP-led Government being friendlier with Israel than any of its predecessors—the Congress always held the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat in high esteem—it was among the 127 countries in favour of the UN resolution. This has assuaged Palestinian anxiety over their cause being abandoned by New Delhi.</p>
<p>On India-Palestine relations in the past, Dr Abdullah says, ‘We expect India to raise the human rights violations by Israel in Palestine as it did earlier.’ He makes a moral argument too: ‘Shouldn’t India side with the occupied people than the occupier?’</p>
<p>Dr Abdullah’s words suggest a sense of disappointment, even if he is careful not to be critical of India’s recent Israel tilt. For the past year, Palestinian diplomats have been seeking assurances from India that it would continue to back their cause at the UN. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas even visited India a month before Modi’s Israel tour, and now a separate visit by India’s Prime Minister to Palestine is being planned. Despite the optics, India’s ruling party has managed to strike a balance between its inclinations and India’s international commitments.</p>
<p>For a long time, Indian analysts believed support for Palestine was both a moral and strategic stance, with Arabs thought to be pleased by it; and with several million citizens working in the Gulf’s Arab countries, India treads cautiously in its relations with them. Changing dynamics in the region, however, make space for a more nuanced approach. Middle Eastern countries today do not have a unified position on the conflict, with significant differences between the Gulf’s two major rivals, the Sunni-dominant Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shia-majority republic Iran. Both these Islamic powers have been vying for supremacy in the region.</p>
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<p>“The Indian PM’s visit to Israel or Netanyahu’s visit to India is a bilateral matter between them. We value India sticking to its principled stand and supporting us at the international forum” - Dr Abdullah Abdullah, chairman, political committee, Palestinian Legislative Council</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Saudi Arabia’s main concern is the rise of Iran, not a dream deal for Palestine. In the recent wars in Syria and Iraq, while militant groups supported by Saudis and Qataris (and Turks) had to bite the dust, Iranian allies like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad scored a success. Iran, a sworn enemy of the US and Israel, has expanded its influence in the Levant lately, much to the consternation of Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince Mohammad bin Salman is said to be especially keen to contain Tehran’s ambitions. For this, he needs the support of the US as well as Israel, with which some believe he is trying to forge a tacit understanding. As reported by <em>The New York Times</em>, the prince met Mahmoud Abbas in November and suggested a peace plan that would be unacceptable to any Palestinian leader; under the proposal, the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank will stay with Israel, Palestinians will have no right to return, and East Jerusalem would not be the capital of a future state of Palestine.</p>
<p>According to Dr Mehran Kamrava, an international affairs expert at the Georgetown School of Foreign Policy in Doha, Saudi Arabia wants a good working relationship with Israel, so India needn’t worry about Riyadh’s reaction to its new equation with it. “The Saudis have a <em>de facto</em> alliance with Israel; UAE is on the same path and they generally accept the idea of Israel,” he says over the phone, “Netanyahu’s visit or India and Israel’s growing ties will not impact the Gulf’s [relations with] India.”</p>
<p>Observers also note Riyadh’s protest on Trump’s Jerusalem declaration was a token one. Tehran, in contrast, has had chants of ‘Death to Israel’ on its streets ever since the Islamic revolution of 1979. After Trump’s move, Iran’s Commander of the Quds force Major General Qasem Soleimani promised to help the Palestinian resistance take on Israel with all means necessary. Al Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem and the force named after it is Iran’s division for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. Iran leads an anti-Israel axis that includes Assad’s Syrian forces and the Hizbollah in Lebanon. While this is largely a Shia alliance, analysts say it suits Iran’s one-upmanship in matters of faith to back the mostly Sunni Palestinian struggle.</p>
<p>Just a few days before Modi’s Israel visit, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei had tweeted, ‘Muslim world should openly support people of #Bahrain, #Kashmir, #Yemen, etc and repudiate oppressors & tyrants who attacked ppl in #Ramadan’. This could be interpreted as a threat that Iran would support Kashmiri separatists, though Tehran’s actual relations with New Delhi have not suffered. The first phase of the strategic Chabahar port in Iran, being developed jointly with India to open a trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia bypassing Pakistan, got underway shortly after. Iran is the third largest oil supplier to India and needs trade ties with New Delhi as much as India needs Tehran as a way round Pakistan for its regional business interests. New Delhi maintained silence over the mass protests that broke out in late 2017 in Iran.</p>
<p>Beyond the economic interdependence, Dr Mohammad Marandi, dean of global studies at Tehran University, offers a softer rationale for Khamenei’s tweet. “The tweet was not a threat but stating how Kashmir hurts India’s image in the Islamic world,” he says over the phone. On Palestine, Dr Marandi invokes India’s credentials as a pioneer of the Non-Aligned Movement: “India has been a leader of anti-colonialism and Iran remembers that. We hope India takes its history into consideration on Palestine.”</p>
<p>India has moved from Nehruvian worldview to multi-lateralism. Yet, if New Delhi is seemingly pro-Israel, it has also backed Syria. At the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus last August, Al-Assad’s advisor Dr Bouthana Shabban voiced the Arab world’s frustration with India’s new Israel policy. Syria has always supported India on Kashmir, and New Delhi has stood by the Syrian regime through the seven-year-long Syrian war. Indian analysts put this down to India’s long-held opposition to any ‘regime change’ imposed by the West. Such a show of support wasn’t enough for Dr Shabban. “Syria is very disappointed with the unnecessary optics displayed during PM Modi’s Israel visit,” she told me, “Syria will think twice before allocating projects to India. We knew India was trading with Israel, but such inconsideration to Arab sentiment is hurtful.”</p>
<p>Dr Shabban raises an important question, which resonates in some Indian diplomatic quarters. If India and Israel have had a good relationship without irking Arabs for 25 years now, what does the elaborate display of affection between the two leaders achieve?</p>
<p>Most Arabs applaud India for its non-aligned, anti-colonialist past and speak of India fondly for its independent foreign policy. While India has not faced a backlash from the Islamic world so far, India’s soft power could suffer if seen to be joining the US-Israel camp.</p>
<p>Abbas recently recalled its Palestinian envoy who participated in a Hafiz Saeed rally in Pakistan, but has also signalled that ignoring Palestinian interests may have a cost for New Delhi. India’s embrace of Israel appears to have annoyed the world’s Muslims only mildly so far. This could change if India does not move deftly. The internal quarrels of the Islamic world can’t shield Indian interests beyond a point.</p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/india-israel-partnership/the-mobi-moment" target="_blank">The MoBi Moment</a><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/essay/the-road-to-jerusalem" target="_blank">The Road to Jerusalem</a></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Anxietyamity.jpg?itok=lC2PuS8F" /><div>BY: Anchal Vohra</div><div>Node Id: 23857</div>Thu, 18 Jan 2018 08:45:17 +0000vijayopen23857 at http://www.openthemagazine.comThe MoBi Momenthttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/india-israel-partnership/the-mobi-moment
<p>HERB KEINON, DIPLOMATIC correspondent of <em>The Jerusalem Post</em>, has travelled with Israeli prime ministers for over 20 years, and he hasn’t seen the kind of welcome accorded to them anywhere else in the world that he saw in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Keinon was stunned to see “hundreds of thousands of people” waving Israeli and Indian flags as Binyamin Netanyahu and Modi headed towards the Sabarmati Ashram, set up by Mahatma Gandhi 101 years ago along the eponymous river. “This is an attempt by Modi to have his desire to [enhance] the relationship [between the two countries] trickle down to the masses,” he says.</p>
<p>Most pundits who have closely watched India’s growing ties with Israel since 1992, when diplomatic relations became official, hasten to point out how far the two democracies have come since the 1990s. Says Edward Luttwak, military historian and an author who had fought the 1967 Israeli-Arab war as a soldier: “When heads of governments meet, a lot of fine words are used. In the case of India and Israel, a substantial percentage of them are actually true.”</p>
<p>On a six-day visit to India, Netanyahu is accompanied—besides diplomats— by 130 Israeli businesspeople from nearly 100 companies in sectors that range from cyber security and military hardware and water resources, energy, agriculture and health. Among them is Rafael’s CEO Yoav Har Even, whose $850 million sale of missiles to the Indian Army is likely to be scrapped. Rafael was to supply the Army with 8,000 Spike anti-tank missiles, and Netanyahu hopes the visit will help save the deal.</p>
<p>For his part, Netanyahu had tweeted as he landed in India, ‘We are ushering today a new era in relations between Israel and India. We’ve had diplomatic relations for 25 years but something different is happening now because of your leadership, Prime Minister @narendramodi, and because of our partnership.’</p>
<p>Clearly, as Keinon sensed, there is more to the bromance between Modi and Netanyahu than prime ministers have had in the past. The most obvious affinity draws upon the political affiliations of the two heads of government. Michael Kugelman, Asia Program deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center, points out, “Interestingly, there’s much in common between Modi and Netanyahu—these are two men with conservative politics and tough-on-terror positions.”</p>
<p>Kugelman could go on about the reasons why the two countries should move closer together. According to him, Israel can help serve major Indian needs, from sharing knowledge and technologies on better water management to providing arms and partnering India on innovative high-tech projects. He also feels there’s something to be said about the similarities between Israel and India more broadly, and particularly how they are both imperfect democracies in unfriendly neighbourhoods. The bottom line, he says, is that for reasons of interests, leadership personalities and geopolitics, these are two countries with compelling reasons to deepen their partnership.</p>
<p>The Sabarmati river front has witnessed similar moments before. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Modi had shared a photo opportunity on a swing. Japan’s Shinzo Abe and he had spent time there. With Netanyahu, Modi flew a shimmering kite.</p>
<p>‘Narendra’ and ‘Bibi’ had set the stage for such optics right at the outset. While Netanyahu described his Indian counterpart as a “revolutionary leader” in whose company he feels like he is at a rock concert, Modi said Netanyahu’s visit was a “long anticipated moment” in the journey of friendship between the two countries.</p>
<p>The two leaders also broke protocol and taboos. Just as Netanyahu did for him on his Israel tour last July, Modi received the Israeli Prime Minister at the airport. There have been moments both light and reflective. “My friend Narendra... any time you want to do a yoga class with me... it is a big stretch, but I will be there. Trust me,” Netanyahu remarked as he began his six-day visit. He also set aside apprehensions about Israel’s reaction to New Delhi having joined 127 countries to vote in the United Nations General Assembly in favour of a resolution opposing the recent decision of US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Admitting that the Jewish state was disappointed, he said “one negative vote” will not disrupt bilateral ties.</p>
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<p>“Interestingly, there’s much in common between Narendra Modi and Binyamin Netanyahu. These are two men with conservative politics and tough-on-terror positions” - Michael Kugelman, Asia program deputy director, Woodrow Wilson Centre</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The chemistry, cordiality and camaraderie between the leaders were by now familiar. The spotlight was on what was happening behind the closed doors.</p>
<p>Netanyahu has made it clear that his focus is on boosting trade in various spheres, “changing the world”. He described the relationship between India and Israel as a marriage made in heaven but consecrated on earth. These words bring back memories of his interaction with business people from China and Israel in Beijing nine months ago, when he also described their ties as a heavenly blessed betrothal. Netanyahu had encouraged China to assume its rightful place on the world stage and assured it that Israel would be its perfect junior partner in that effort.</p>
<p>During Netanyahu’s visit to India, the first by any Israeli prime minister after Ariel Sharon 25 years ago, optics have gone hand in hand with Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). It was after a trip to the Taj Mahal that Netanyahu reflected on the relationship between nations. Back in the capital that evening, while taking part in ‘Raisina Dialogues’ organised by the ministry of external affairs and Observer Research Foundation (ORF), he said, “The weak don’t survive. The strong survive. You make peace with the strong. Make [an] alliance with the strong. You are able to maintain peace by being strong. Therefore, the first requirement of Israel from the time of our first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, was to achieve maximum strength to assure our existence.”</p>
<p>Again sprinkling praise on Modi, who was in the audience for taking India 42 places ahead on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index, he spoke on the need to slash red tape and taxes. Netanyahu tried to counter arguments that the two countries do not share enemies by saying, “Our way of life is being challenged —most notably, the quest for modernity [and] the quest for innovation [are] being challenged by radical Islam and its terrorist offshoots from a variety of corners.” He was speaking on ‘Managing Disruptive Transitions: Ideas, Institutions and Idioms’, when he got down to brass tacks. “I like soft power, but hard power is often better,” Netanyahu said, explaining that submarines, cyber capabilities, science and technology, interceptors are necessities for “ensuring security for countries in the present-day world”.</p>
<p>ANALYSTS BY AND large acknowledge that Modi has broken past inhibitions in openly embracing the Israeli leadership on matters beyond defence cooperation. “Modi has brought it out of the closet and having done that, it should be taken further. Personal chemistry is useful, and so is going beyond it and what you do. He was the first Prime Minister to go to Israel,” says C Raja Mohan, director, Carnegie India, a think-tank.</p>
<p>The global Jewish advocacy organisation AJC, which has been engaged in a decade-long effort to establish a trilateral alliance of India, Israel and the US, views the new approach on India’s part as pragmatic. “Something new is definitely happening in both countries. It began under Congress, but Modi brought it to a new level,” says Jason Isaacson, the associate executive director for policy who has overseen AJC’s outreach to India since the early 1990s.</p>
<p>India has gained vastly from Israel’s cutting-edge technologies in agriculture and water management. Karnal’s Gharaunda Agricultural Centre of Excellence is a case in point. Modi has often made a mention of how Israel taught him the worth of scientific water management for agriculture. It was during his visit to Israel as Gujarat Chief Minister in 2006 that he was impressed by the semi-arid country’s success in this field.</p>
<p>AJC’s Nissim Reuben, who was the director of the Indian-Jewish American Relations Program, recalls that right from the time Modi visited Israel as Chief Minister, the leader has been interested in practical applications. “The ‘per drop, more crop’ [method] is an example of this. He had called India’s then ambassador Pawan Kumar and asked him to focus on getting the technology. From a Gujarati perspective, it was a business-like approach. He tried to harness the strength of our people,” says Reuben who grew up in Ahmedabad. “That focus of 2006 has now been brought to the national stage,” he says, “As Chief Minister, he laid a foundation for entrepreneurship.”</p>
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<p>“Many recognise the potential of the ties. Look at the coverage of the prime ministerial visits. There have been nine MoUs. This is not just about symbolism. It’s not just about hugs” - Jason Issacson, associate executive director for policy, AJC</p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to Kugelman, on a transactional level, a closer partnership between India and Israel can entail more arms sales, investments in India’s high-tech sector, and useful technology to help the country achieve irrigation efficiency. In Netanyahu’s words, “Israel is a fountainhead of innovation; India has enormous talent... In Israel, we achieve more with less, more crops with less water, more energy with less money.”</p>
<p>There is a geo-strategic aspect to the friendship too. “There’s something to be said for deepening a relationship with one of the key powers in the Middle East,” argues Kugelman. Though India has high stakes in Arab countries that are officially hostile to Israel, Modi hasn’t been averse to flaunting his badge of friendship with Israel publicly. Kugelman credits this to India’s diplomacy—how it continues to maintain a delicate balance between its growing relations with Israel and its ties with key Arab countries as well as Iran. “There’s something to be said about the recent incident involving the Palestinian ambassador in Pakistan being fired for meeting with Hafiz Saeed—clearly, the pressure that New Delhi put on the Palestinians had a happy ending for India, and with no negative consequences for India’s relations with Palestinians,” he says. “The days of non-alignment may be over, but India still has the ability to straddle multiple camps without upsetting anyone in the process. And that’s no small feat.”</p>
<p>Notes Vijay Chauthaiwala, a BJP leader in charge of foreign affairs, “After Modi’s arrival on the stage, we are never shy. The personal chemistry between the two prime ministers was always evident from Modi’s first meeting with Netanyahu in 2014 in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. As Chief Minister of Gujarat when he visited Israel in 2006, he was impressed by it in terms of progress in technology and other areas. At the same time, it is a fact that we have good relations with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Israel is aware of this and there is pragmatism in its understanding that India will have a multi-dimensional approach. We had diplomatic relations with Israel since the days of the Congress, but it remained under the carpet because of worries about reactions and how Muslims in India will respond. We are not shy of pursuing a friendship with Israel. Previously relations were confined to defence, but now these [are] government-to-government, business-to-business and people-to-people. Water technology, innovations, etcetera, are important. From being purely a security dominated engagement, it is becoming multi-dimensional. There is optics and at the same time the relationship is maturing.” India and Israel have signed MoUs on cyber security, oil and gas, air transport, film production, homeopathy, space, trade, thermal technologies and other matters during the visit.</p>
<p>INDIA’S VOTE AGAINST the US declaration on Jerusalem has often been raised as a cause for concern by right-wing elements within Israel, notwithstanding Netanyahu’s contention that it takes time before a country’s UN stance shows signs of altering. Isaacson says there has certainly been disappointment on India’s vote, but he adds that it was in the context of India’s history and recognition of its traditional interests in the Middle East. “When Modi went to Israel, meetings with Israeli officials were held in Jerusalem. By deed, Modi has recognised Jerusalem as the Israeli capital,” says Isaacson, “There is a mature understanding. Agreement and disagreement are natural between allies. The December 21st vote was a resolution condemning the United States and I don’t believe it will affect relations between Israel and India.”</p>
<p>India has broad relations with Islamic countries of the Middle East. Besides being dependent on the region for more than 60 per cent of its oil and gas, the country also receives vast foreign currency remittances from over 7 million Indians employed in the Gulf.</p>
<p>Isaacson does not agree that the India-Israel relationship is just about the personal chemistry between Modi and Netanyahu. “There are too many business people and leaders in industry, intellectuals, academia, security establishments who recognise the potential,” he says, “Look at the coverage of the prime ministerial visits in both countries. There have been nine MoUs. It’s clear this is not just about symbolism. It’s not just about hugs.”</p>
<p>For Israel, India, which faces similar low-intensity attacks from across the border, is a lucrative defence market. Arielle Kandel, an expert on India-Israel policy ties, says that according to declassified documents, Tel Aviv had provided India military hardware during the 1962 war with China and later when India went to war with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. During the Kargil War, according to reports, Israel had at short notice supplied India drones for high-altitude surveillance, laser-guided systems and so on. As Efraim Inbar, political science professor at Bar-Ilan University and the director of its Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, has stated in an interview, “Israel, unlike others, is very liberal when it comes to technology transfer.” This adds a distinctive edge to the relationship. No wonder that India’s defence research institute DRDO holds Israel’s military hardware in such high esteem. Many of its scientists have been to that country and seen its advances.</p>
<p>Behind closed doors, the two countries have also discussed thorny subjects such as Palestine and Iran. In a joint statement, both countries have reaffirmed their support for an early resumption of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians for a comprehensive negotiated solution on all outstanding issues, based on mutual recognition and effective security arrangements. ‘The two prime ministers discussed the developments pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process,’ said the joint statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs after a meeting between the two leaders. According to Israeli media reports, Iran, with which India has warm ties, also came up for discussion (questions are often raised in Israel whether India can be friends with both).</p>
<p>Beyond the optics, there is the politics of a tight-rope balancing act and a sense of maturity.</p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/india-israel-partnership/india-israel-romance-anxiety-over-the-amity" target="_blank">Anxiety Over the Amity</a><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/essay/the-road-to-jerusalem" target="_blank">The Road to Jerusalem</a></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Mobi1.jpg?itok=O9NkQeCD" /><div>BY: Amita Shah</div><div>Node Id: 23856</div>Thu, 18 Jan 2018 08:29:25 +0000vijayopen23856 at http://www.openthemagazine.com